No Backup Plan (John 6:60-69) | Pastor Kelvin Shaw (Sermon)

What happens when following Jesus confronts your comfort, challenges your expectations, and calls you to full surrender?

In this powerful message from John 6:60-69, Pastor Kelvin Shaw calls us from conditional Christianity into wholehearted discipleship. Many people follow Jesus when there is bread, blessing, miracles, and comfort—but true disciples remain when His Word calls for repentance, holiness, obedience, and sacrifice.

This episode exposes the spiritual backup plans we often keep in our hearts and challenges every listener to fully choose Jesus, because He alone has the words of eternal life.

If you have ever wrestled with commitment, struggled with surrender, or felt the pull to walk away when God’s Word became difficult, this message will encourage you to leave the backup plan behind and follow Jesus completely.

Key Scripture: John 6:60-69
Speaker: Pastor Kelvin Shaw
Church: New Life Pentecostal Church – North York
Podcast: New Life Now

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Transcript

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John chapter number six and verse sixty to sixty-nine. If you have it, say I got it. If you don't, say, wait a second. The Bible says, Therefore, many of his disciples, when they heard this, said, This is a hard saying. Who can understand it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, Does this offend you? Now, I want you to notice when he says, Does this offend you? Is he not really asking a question, but he's saying it in a way, if you read the text in Greek, he's like, Does this offend you? Okay, then I'm gonna offend you even more. That's what he's about to do. And he says to them, What then, if you should see the Son of Man ascend where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life. Look what he says: the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. Verse 65, and he said, Therefore I said to you that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. And from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked with him no more. Then Jesus looked at his twelve disciples and said, Do you also want to go away? But Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words to eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Focusing on verse 67, this is a question that the Lord asked his disciples, but in a somber way, I believe this is a question that the Lord is asking someone here today. Do you also want to go away? Do you also want to leave me? Do you also want to go? And by the help of the Lord, like Peter, I hope we can all answer Whom shall we go? He didn't say a place, he said a person. Who shall we go to? For you have the words of eternal life. With the help of the Lord this morning, I want to preach just from this, and I feel like this is a Zacchaeus word. You say, Pastor Shaw, what's a Zacchaeus word? A Zacchaeus word is when the word comes to your house. That He wants to walk into your house. So, with the help of the Lord, I want to just preach from this scripture under this title, No Backup Plan. No backup plan. Why don't you look at your neighbor and tell them, I got, I don't have any backup plan. No backup plan. Let's really turn our attention to the Lord. Thank you, Heavenly Father Jesus. We honor you this morning. We're thankful, God, that everyone that's here under the sound of my voice and those that are joining us online, God, are here to hear a word from you. God, move me out of the way so that your people can hear directly from you. Speak to our hearts and our minds. God, call somebody into a deeper consecration this morning. I'm thankful, God, Lord, for the prayer. I'm thankful, God, for the worship, God. I'm thankful, God, that we've come to worship you in all different ways, all different places. But God, the main reason why we're here is to hear from you. So speak, God, right now. Speak into my life, God, in a way that would allow me to get closer to you this morning. And I'm thankful for what you're gonna do and in great anticipation. In Jesus' name. Somebody shout the name of Jesus, and you may be seated in the presence of the Lord. John chapter six opens with Jesus being at the height of his visible popularity. The crowds have been following him because they have seen many signs. They watched the sickness of those that were ill disappear, and they watched sickness bow at the name of Jesus, because he had all authority in his hand. They've also watched the helpless begin to get holy opportunities, and they've witnessed enough to know that Jesus is not an ordinary man, but Jesus is exactly who he says he was. And when people were hungry and thirsty, he fed them, and he did only what Jesus could do. At the start of this chapter, we see that he takes a boy's lunch. I would even argue a boy's half-finished lunch. Five loaves and two fishes. Now, this isn't kingfish. It's more like sardines. And he only has five of them, but he puts them in his holy hands. He lifts them to heaven, and heaven recognizes who he is. The crowd eats until they're filled. We know that there are leftovers even after the limitation. And when the people see the miracles, they want to know if God, if this man who is God in the flesh, can multiply bread again. They say, When is the next barbecue? When is the next time we'll see a miracle? But this is where the text, if you read it, begins to turn. Because after Jesus feeds them, he begins to teach them. And he moves just from a conversation about what he has done to a conversation of who he is. He tells them after he gives them bread. He then turns around and says, Now that you've been fed with natural bread, I want you to know that I am the bread of life. And he doesn't talk about eating that will fill our flesh, but he's talking about eating that will fill the spirit. He says, I am the bread of life. If you eat me, you will live forever. And the crowd begins to get a bit weird. Because they go from eating hard bread to him talking about eating his flesh. And they say, What are you talking about, Jesus? You're saying to eat your flesh and drink your blood, and this begins to be get too much for them. It's beyond just the miracle, it's beyond just the feel-good, it's beyond just the comfortable, and it moves them to a place that he starts to talk about the eternal. This is where the tension in the text arises because the same crowd that shouted about his miracles begin to stumble on his teachings. They wanted bread for their hands, and he was giving them the bread from his mouth. He was giving them the truth. And we come up to John 6 and 60, and the disciples begin to say something that we read. This is a hard saying. Who can understand it? If you read before, he's telling them, you need to eat this bread, my flesh, and drink my blood. And they say, No, Jesus, you've gone too far. I just want the natural stuff. I just want the stuff that makes me feel good. But now that you're talking about the eternal, I don't understand it. This is too hard. But the issue was really what he was saying was too hard to accept. He was not just teaching a simple confusion of the mind or something to confuse the mind, but he was really confronting their hearts. And Jesus began to be offensive in his expectation. He did not fit into their box that they had built for him. He would not be reduced to only being a miracle worker. And he would not let them use bread, but still refuse life. And if I'm honest this morning, that's the divide that many people find themselves in when it comes to Jesus. Can I be honest for a moment? I know many of us, all of us, love Jesus. And we love him when he's opening the doors. We love him when he's multiplying the bread. We love him when he's meeting all our needs. But what happens when we start wrestling with closed doors? I still love Jesus, but what what what happens in me when he starts confronting my flesh? When he starts correcting my direction and changing my path and asking me to surrender, then I then I don't like Jesus as much. This is the text and the tension that we read. We start seeing that what do we do when God stops feeding our appetite and starts feeding our soul? What do we do when he's not worried about the miracles that he's giving us, but he's more interested in confronting the alliance to him? Oh, come on, Holy Ghost, help me here. What happens when the word no longer is there just to bless us, but the word is there to challenge us? Can I tell you the cost of following him exposes something? The cost of following Jesus exposes our secret backup plans. Because we can choose him enough to enjoy him and enjoy his blessings and choose him enough when we're on the mountaintop. But at times we can still be holding back a backup plan. And after this, many walked away. Jesus turned to his disciples and said, Will you also go away? I'm asking somebody that this morning. The word is asking, are you also gonna walk away? But there's a question that the Lord wants us to know. Will you also leave? Because I haven't fulfilled your convenience. This is what I want to preach this morning. I want to preach to those that don't have a backup plan. I want to preach to those that do have a backup plan to remove the backup plan today. There is something that I'm gonna describe as a spiritual backup plan. A backup plan is a secret exit strategy that we hold on to if obedience is gonna cost us too much. It's a hidden argument or agreement that we make with ourselves that says, I will follow Jesus, but only if he does everything that I ask him to do on the timing that I ask him to do it. And why does this happen? And I start thinking about it. We all at times develop these spiritual backup plans, and they happen because really we always, as humans, we want control. You don't got to talk to me. I'll talk to myself this morning. We put backup plans in place because we want to have the strategies for our life, and we want to have a backup plan because sometimes, if we're on us, the spirit makes the flesh very nervous. We have backup plans because we want God to lead us, but we want to know where we're going. God, lead me, but let me hold the map. It's like saying, God, order my steps, but only if I approve the route. Here's the truth. We like security. Does anybody like security? Let's be honest. We we want control. We want to know what's happening next. What's the economy doing? What what what's my my stuff doing? Where's my money going? Where's my my time going? I want to control everything, but can I tell you sometimes those things slip away from us and we have no control anymore? We want to have something to fall back on just in case God doesn't move when he thought he should move. We we want to have the answer, even when he refuses to give us the answer. Has anybody ever been there? We have a backup plane just in case this serving God costs too much. I was thinking about it, and you know I like illustrations. Brother John Dudu, you come and help me with this illustration. And if this was the map, what God does oftentimes in our life is He He shares insights with the map with us. He says, Okay, this is where we're going. And right when we get enough, he goes like this. He said, God, I don't remember what what was the next step? And God says, Okay, follow me. Follow me. And sometimes God even says, the map's not even important. When we're always like, God, what what do you want me to do? And he says, it's not important. I want you to just follow me. And when we walk, we follow after him. But oftentimes when we have a backup plan, when we don't know where God is leading us, we start saying, What about the plan? And we start looking back at the plan. That's the plan. So look, look, that that's the plan for our life, but this is God following, leading us. And and it's hard for you to follow God while still looking back at the plan. So keep looking at the plan and follow me. Look at the plan, follow me. Look at the plan and follow me. You see, he can't, he can't. And sometimes God has to he goes way ahead of us and he says, Brother John, I want you to forget about the plan and come back to me. And and then we catch up to him and we start following. Come on, follow me. You see, it's easy to follow God when we have our eyes on Jesus. And yeah, I know he has a plan for my life, but I'm not worried about the plan because if I follow Jesus, he's gonna bring me right at the right time to the plan. This is a principle just in general. I can never go forward looking backwards. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Because sometimes we want to go forward, but we keep doing this, and we end up doing moonwalking, trying to find God. But there is no backup plan in Jesus. If we follow Jesus, it's gonna be thank you, Brother John. He did a great job. Thank you. So you said, Pastor Shaw, what is backup plans? Can I give you a couple examples? Sister Machete, I'm gonna do it anyway. Our old life is a backup plan. We follow Jesus but still keep our old habits. We follow Jesus but want to still have all of our old contacts. We follow Jesus, but we still talk the same way that we used to talk. Still want to be in the same old environments. And can I tell you, if you're gonna follow him, you can't be in the old lifestyle. Let me give you something that I've shared with me for years. This is this will help somebody. You can't pray your way out of something you've behaved yourself into. Uh-oh. If I behave myself into it, I gotta behave my way out of it. If we don't get this concept, then we we can all and all of us can be gone. God help me with my attitude. God help me with my attitude. You know what will help our attitude? Ourselves helping our attitude. I gotta change my oh God, give me give me a prayer life, give me a prayer life, give me a prayer life. You know what I gotta do? I gotta just pray. Oh is this rocket science here? I can't pray my way out of something that I behaved myself into. I gotta behave my way, I gotta follow Jesus out of it. That's why I'm in the word, so I know what the word says. For the word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I gotta know the word. Sometimes it's the control backup plan. That's where we say, God, have your way. But the moment God doesn't do something according to our timeline, or the moment he doesn't force open a door or makes moves for us, we start saying, uh, maybe I'll do it my way. I'll be like Burger King. I'll have it my way. That's funny. You can't have Burger King your way because they make it themselves. I just thought about that. Only Harvey's has it your way. Never mind, never mind. We but when control becomes our backup plan, is when we only trust God as long as He follows what we want. Here's another backup plan: the offense backup plan. God, I'll follow you as long as the church people don't hurt me. Oh, I got quiet in here, Bishop. God, I'm following you, but look what they did, and look what they did, and look who they are, and look what they did to me, look what they said to me. God, look how they looked at me. I ain't coming no more. The offense backup plan. Only serve God until I get offended. I think Jesus is the one that says, Blessed are they that are offended in me. Can I tell you something? That if we get offended and we decide to walk away, that's the backup plan. I'm gonna serve God until God, unless you let all the roses come and lay down at my feet. Every time I walk, God, uh the snow begins to melt, and the roses and the petals, I nobody, and as soon as somebody does something, I'm out of here. A backup plan. This type of backup plan is anything that will keep us close enough to trust God until God trusting God feels too costly. So we all have secret backup plans. And in that day when they began to hear the word of God, when Jesus stopped giving them bread and gave them truth. The Bible says that from that time, John 6, verse 66, many of his disciples. Now, look what it says. It doesn't say many of the sinners. It doesn't say many of them that didn't know God. It didn't say many of them that weren't connected to Jesus. It said many of his disciples. Does anybody know what a disciple is? What's a disciple? A follower. Many of his followers went back and walked with him no more. The question that I have in my mind is why did they leave? Did they leave because God stopped, Jesus stopped being good to them? That's a question for you. Is that why they left? Because Jesus started being bad? Started being mean? No, but they left because truth stopped being convenient. The real issue wasn't that Jesus wasn't clear enough. But it was because he became too clear. He said, the bread that you just ate was good for your stomach, but I am the bread of life. You gotta consume all of me. You can't just have a snack. Is this too hard? His word moved past all of their curiosity and went straight to their secret backup plans. It reached past their expectations and it reached and it challenged their flesh. It challenged even their comfort. Can I be honest? Comfort. I want to live comfortably. God, I want to, I want to be nice. I want to just smiling all the time. I want to live in a nice house, drive a car, you know, have extra extra money at the end of the at the end of the week. I want to live comfortable. But you know, there was many times God had to challenge my comfortability. Is he still good if I have nothing left? Will he still be good to you when when you get in a car accident and he breaks down your favorite car? That happened to me. Will he still be good if I don't know what I'm gonna do next? When he disrupts my comfort at some point, we have to get to a place where he said, forget the backup plan. I'd rather follow Jesus. Some people walked away because the word confronted their lifestyle or their expectations, or the word corrected them. So the Bible says they went back. Now this is interesting. Went back. This is a uh in the Greek, it's a phrase that carries more than just physical movement. It means that they withdrew, they turned away, and they moved toward what was behind them. So they went back, meaning they were serving God until God messed up their expectation of him and they went back to what they thought they could trust. Maybe they went back to the old testament only, not knowing that the old testament was revealed in Jesus Christ. They said, I'd rather follow the rituals. Maybe they went back to their old way of thinking and the old way, well, I can't see what this Jesus is really talking about. So let me just rely on my own self. Let me rely on what I know, and I know myself. Went back to their old comfortable, comfortability. They, you know, Jesus was walking all over the place. Maybe they said, I'm tired of walking. Has anybody ever been on a walk and they started realizing I've gone too far? Start looking at your phone. I need an Uber to get back. Where am I going? I've walked, I've I've I've gone way too far. I'm out of my comfort zone. So what do you do? I'm gonna go back. I remember one time I went on a walk-a-thon. We used to do walk-a-thons. Does anybody remember those? And we were all excited, Bishop. I'm gonna raise money. I'm gonna walk ten miles. And halfway through, about the, not even halfway, about three miles, I said, say, mom, can we go back? Mom, I I don't know if I I don't want to do this walk of home. They can keep the money. And you just keep going, and I I remember, my mom's gonna laugh at this one. I remember we all got back, and we by the time we got back, we had blisters on our feet. And my mom, I heard her go upstairs in her room in her shower, and all I heard is a big she passed out. And my dad came over there. Are you mad? What did you just walk up on? She's passed out for Jesus. We realize we went too far. I want to go back. We want to go back to our own self-rule. Want to go back to our religious ideas without following the spiritual ideas. Want to go back to the version of Jesus where he doesn't confront us. Where everything we think and say, it has to be right. And if Jesus says it, I'm more right than you, Jesus. The danger is not a place in terms of going backwards. The danger is often a mindset. The backup plan that I'm talking about is in our mind and not just a physical place. What they went back to was not stronger than Jesus, but it was simpler to the flesh. And can I tell you anything that lets your flesh stay in charge is not of Jesus. And then Jesus. Didn't I say that? Jesus then brings a great revelation. After all of them leave, he turns back to his disciples and he says something to them that I believe he's saying to some of us this morning. Do you also want to go away? Imagine people leaving and saying, Oh, I gotta leave because my mom's calling me. I gotta leave because, oh, Jesus, I left the the turkey in the oven. I gotta go. Jesus, I I left because uh uh uh where you're going is too hard for me. I don't know where you're going. So all of them walking away one by one with excuses and and just picture them as everybody starts to leave. Jesus stands there and and and there's those that are sitting there and just looking and watching everybody go, and they realize uh they have all these reasons to leave, but I don't have a reason to leave. And Jesus asked them a question. Do you also want to go? And I realized this question. This question is really not just a question, but it's an invitation. Do you want to go? Do you do you do you want to leave as well? Can I just tell you something? Let me pause for a second. Jesus will never force us to have faith. He he won't say you have to follow me. No, no. He's gonna he won't force surrender on us. He'll just say, Do you want to come with me or do you want to go with them? It's an invitation. Do you do you want to come to my with me? I'm gonna take you places that you might not understand, but it's gonna be worth it. Do you want to come with men? Don't look at it as a negative, look at it as a positive. Jesus puts out the invitation. I know there's many reasons, there's many backup plans out there, but do you want to follow me? Notice what Peter says. He says, Where shall we go? No, no, no, he doesn't say where. He says, Who shall we go? Jesus said, You want to go away? You want to go to the places that everybody else, you want to go to the backup plan of control, you want to go here, there, and the other hand. Peter just says, He doesn't, he he his going away is not a location. Who? Who else can I go to? Jesus. God, I don't have a backup plan. All the stuff that I have, in fact, Peter left all the stuff that he had to follow him. He said, Everything that I have is not worth it. Paul would tell us everything that I've gained is as dumb. When who should I go to? Oh, I feel the Holy Ghost here. Who should I go to, Jesus? There's nobody else but you. There's no other God greater than you. Who should I go to? I'm trying to all the gods of this world, but that can't suffice. Who shall I go to? Who is it, God? How can I say this, sister Shah? It's no other God. It's not Raman, it's not Buddha, there's no other God. Who can I go to? It's not Muhammad, I can't go to him. It's not to you. It's not my money, it's not my will. Can I go to God? There's no mother savor. There's no other name. There's no mother. There's no other boss. I am the way. I am the Jesus. I am the comfortable father. I just have you, Jesus. But guess what? I have you, Jesus. Jesus, if you're the way, I don't need another road. Jesus, if you're a truth, I don't need another answer. If you're a life, I don't need another source. Does anybody know what I'm talking about this morning? So Peter had to lay down his backup plan. Lay down the exit strategy. Lay down his will. And just say, I don't have any other alternatives. I don't have any other way. I don't have any other answer. I don't have any other source. I have you. Music, if you can come back. Can I tell somebody when you know? When you know, when you know who he is, you can survive even when you don't understand. When you know who he is, you can endure life even when you don't enjoy life. When you know who he is, you can stand still when others would retreat. So today, this morning, I want to know if you're gonna choose Jesus. Let me just say it like this. I am gonna choose Jesus. I ain't going back because I found the life. I'm not gonna look away or look around because I know the truth, and the truth has set me free. I'm not walking away because I found you, Jesus. And if he is the Christ, and if he has eternal life, there's no other name that can save me. I've made up my mind. My feet are planted, my answer is settled, I got no backup plan. If we stand this morning, this altar call is for those who have made up in their mind. It's for those that are gonna cancel the backup plans in their life. For those that are gonna say, I'm gonna stay with you, Jesus. Come hell or high water, I'm gonna be on your side. I've been to the valley of the shadow of death, but you have been with me, and God, I'm declaring today I'm gonna be with you. Today is that time. It's not a time for a shout, really, but a time for us to just take a calibration in our mind. God, if I have a backup plan, I give you the backup plan. Because serving you is better than anything else that I've had. I'll give you one story. I had a friend call me this week, and the friend I referred him to a person that he needed to do business with, and the business was successful that they worked together. And my friend called me, and this he said, I after we did the business, the the business guy said thank you. And he said, How did you hear about me? And he said, I heard from about you from Pastor Shaw. And uh the guy said, How is he doing? and they started talking about life, and I don't even remember having this conversation, but he reminded my friend, he said, I had a conversation with him that changed my life. And he said, What? What was the conversation? And we were talking about we were doing business, and the conversation started going, Bishop, about living for God. And I I was saying to him, you know, how do you live like for God that way? How do you how do you leave everything? How do you how do you just drop everything and follow God? And I said, I said in the conversation with him, and I didn't remember, he was just repeating this conversation to my friend. I said to him at that time, uh, in fact, we were talking about eternity, and he said, How do you know you're gonna be right in the end? How do you know you're not serving God and it's all gonna be for nothing? How do you know that in the eternity we're just gonna we're just gonna go to the dirt and that's it? How do you know? And I said, Well, let me put it this way I said, I live everything for God, and I'll give everything for God, and I have the best life, and if I was wrong in the end, I still lose nothing because I served God my whole life, and I served God the way he wanted me. So if I'm wrong in any way in the end, I lose nothing, but then I turned to him and said, But if you're wrong, and if you serve yourself and follow your own ways and live any way that you want to, if you're wrong, you have an eternity to lose. And he said to my friend, that shook my spirit even to this day. And I thought about it, that's the difference. If I live with no plan, I have nothing to lose. But if I choose God, I have everything to gain. So I'm gonna call this altar this morning. Wherever you are, whoever you are, if you choose God, I want you to fall to this altar. You don't have to be ashamed, you don't have to say, Well, it means that there's something wrong with me. No, no, no, no. It just means I have no backup plan, I have nowhere else to go but to you, Jesus. And when you come to this altar, I want you just to come with a full surrender. Here's how we surrender with our hands raised. That's not a sign of weakness, that's a sign of strength. That's saying, God, I trust you with everything. I don't know what my next steps are, but I know who you are, and I'm gonna follow you with all my heart. That's it. Come. Come. And as soon as you get to this altar, I want you to close your eyes and begin to just speak to God. Oh, come on, sister. There's some other people that can come help pray with people. If you've already made up your mind, if you've already chosen God, this altar is for you too. You can come and just say, Thank you, God. I don't have a backup plan, but I have everything for you.